Sparks remain calm amid panic
Three games into the season Sparks Coach Michael Cooper wanted his team to react with a measured, but somewhat conflicting attitude.
“ ‘It’s not like we’re pressing the panic button, but it’s time to press the panic button,’ ” Sparks forward DeLisha Milton-Jones recalled Cooper saying in the locker room after a loss to Minnesota last week that dropped them to a 1-2 record. “We were like, ‘What are you saying, press it or don’t press it?’
“I understood totally what he was saying, though,” she continued. “We can press the panic button enough to allow us to feel the sense of urgency to get a win. But not to the extent to where we just lose control of everything.”
That conversation took place more than a week ago. Currently, the Sparks are tied with the Sacramento Monarchs for last place in the Western Conference with a 1-4 mark after their most recent loss, an 89-80 defeat by the Phoenix Mercury on Friday. The Sparks host the Monarchs at 6:30 tonight at Staples Center in what is only their second home game of the season.
In their first home game, the Sparks defeated the Detroit Shock by 20 points and appeared to validate a WNBA preseason survey in which league general managers predicted the Sparks to win this season’s title. Sparks General Manager Penny Toler, Cooper and players unequivocally deemed that goal as the only acceptable benchmark.
That was reiterated in several team meetings, including one with Toler last Monday before practice. Toler had plenty to say about the Sparks, who have the league’s third-worst offense (69.4 points a game), average 16.2 turnovers a game and allow teams to shoot the league’s fourth-highest mark of 44.5% from the field and fifth-highest mark of 36.9% from three-point range.
Toler, Cooper and players agree on at least one thing: those problems exist because of effort.
“I’m not here to beat them up,” Toler said. “That’s not my goal. I feel we chose the right players for this team. But I will tell you, when you put on the purple and gold, you’re coming to work.”
The Sparks’ main starting lineup consists of veterans Lisa Leslie (12 years), Tina Thompson (12), Milton-Jones (10), Betty Lennox (9) and Kristi Harrower (6) -- a talent level the Sparks say has exacerbated the embarrassment for having a losing record. But it’s also the reason why they say they won’t panic.
“We don’t have any division,” said Leslie, who suffered a right hip bruise and a minor right knee sprain against Phoenix on Friday, and will sit out tonight’s game. “That’s probably the good part, that we do really have good chemistry off the court and we’re trying to get that on the court as fast as possible.”
Toler, Cooper and players saw defensive lapses as the biggest factors negating the Sparks’ chemistry. That’s why most of last week’s practices focused on defensive drills.
“It’s OK when you’re not shooting well because you can stop other teams,” Thompson said. “Then it’s a knockout, drag-out kind of game. But if they’re scoring and we’re not, then it becomes a problem.”
And the current problem consists of a season starting on the wrong track.
Milton-Jones joked that the team’s sluggishness reminds her of the Lakers’ inconsistency this season, when they eventually won an NBA championship.
But with a 34-game schedule, the Sparks have less time to avert disaster.
“We’ve done a lot of talking, but there’s no need for any more talking,” Lennox said. “There’s nothing else more to be said.”
Except for one thing: Don’t panic, even if the button’s already been pushed.
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Sparks tonight
VS. SACRAMENTO
6:30 at Staples Center
Prime Ticket, NBA TV